(2) Holding Bankers Accountable, New York Times Room for Debate: Lisa Gilbert and Bartlett Naylor of Public Citizen have a piece in this forum, as does Lynn Stout.

(3) NYT endorses Tim Wu for NYS lt. gov., a day after failing to endorse Wu’s running mate, Zephyr Teachout, for governor, which many commenters at the NYT website found strange. Better than no endorsement for either of them, I guess, and Cuomo’s pick for his running mate sounds like a piece of work.

(4) Phan Nguyen on the firing of Steven Salaita: At Mondoweiss, an excellent two–part take-down of Cary Nelson, the U. of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign English professor and former president of the AAUP, who has defended the university’s firing (which is what it is when you withdraw a job offer that has been accepted, and the candidate and his spouse have resigned their positions to move to the new job) of Steven Salaita, a Palestinian-American scholar for tweets critical of Israel’s assault on Gaza. It appears that there was a coordinated campaign of right-wing bloggers to target Salaita. I’m proud my philosopher friends Jason Stanley (of Yale) and Ralph Wedgwood (of USC) have written strong letters in support of Salaita and publicized his firing on Facebook. Here’s what Ralph said, with characteristic flair, on FB when the UIUC trustees upheld Salaita’s firing: “In view of the statements that have been released today by the administration of the University of Illinois, I’m perfectly happy to boycott their university until such time as either (a) they convince me that they have ceased to be the enemies of academic freedom, or (b) I draw my dying breath (whichever is sooner).” Also check out political theorist Bonnie Honig’s letter to UIUC chancellor Phyllis Wise, posted at the website of political scientist Corey Robin, who has been publicizing the Salaita affair; and finally, see an analysis of the legal issues by Michael C. Dorf at Justia.com’s Verdict site.

(5) With/Out-Borders Conference in Kalamazoo: Hat-tip to HIllary Rettig, who sent this:

Kalamazoo Conference Features International Activists, Artists, and Scholars

Next month, we’re having an amazing activist/arts/scholarship conference right here in Kalamazoo! The With/Out-Borders conference will include timely events on racism and urban unrest, the Israel-BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) movement, the prison-industrial complex, youth immigration/undocumented youth, and much more. Here are some of the presenters:

Angela Y. Davis, Civil Rights Icon

Nikky Finney, National Book Award Winner

Willie Kgositsile, South African Poet Laureate

Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Performance Artist and MacArthur Fellow

Gloria Rolando, Filmmaker

Radmilla Cody, NAMMY winner and former Miss Navaho

It’s literally a unique opportunity to see international leaders in many activist fields all gathered in one place and talking intersections.